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Beautality – Providence – Review

Unsigned London act Beautality is made up of multi-instrumentalist Dævid Ravengarde and drummer Duke. After listening to the duo’s debut full-length ‘Providence’, you’re left wondering how they haven’t had label interest yet.

Beautality have a great keystone of accessible black metal which sits beside groovier metallic elements, melodic tremolo lines, tight double-kicking and atmospheric post-rock moments. The band clearly aren’t afraid of making a debut that lasts 76 minutes – and any scepticism about such a move is side-stepped. Not one song is under six minutes, but it doesn’t deter this record from greatness. For the best part of this album, Beautality are inventive and often mesmerising with their structures; a lot of hard work and ambitious sight-setting has made ‘Providence’ a transcendental creation.

‘The Last Days Of Jekyll And Hyde’ has a tortured, melancholic quality with overwhelming vocal harmonies erupting into fuzzy post-black metal riffage. 19-minute epic ‘Eye ov the Storm’ is an enveloping piece that best shows this forward-thinking mentality of the band. The vocal versatility is refreshing too; moving from caustic black metal screams, low Woods of Ypres-inspired moans to a clean style of singing that could even be likened to Arthur Brown on ‘Mourning Star’. Title track ‘Providence’ ends the record with a leaning toward post-rocky textures, progressively wading into more melodious metallic territory and subtle symphonic keys to end the album in reflective tone. This is a very impressive debut album from a band sure to be snapped up by a label soon.